Ayn Rand (1905-1982)

Quotes

• I can accept anthing, except what seems to be the easiest for most people: the half-way, the almost, the just-about, the in-between.

• Civilization is the process of setting man free from men.

• Men have been taught that it is a virtue to agree with others. But the creator is the man who disagrees. Men have been taught that it is a virtue to swim with the current. But the creator is the man who goes against the current. Men have been taught that it is a virtue to stand together. But the creator is the man who stands alone.

• My philosophy, in essence, is the concept of man as a heroic being, with his own happiness as the moral purpose of his life, with productive achievement as his noblest activity, and reason as his only absolute.

• That which you call your soul or spirit is your consciousness, and that which you call 'free will' is your mind's freedom to think or not, the only will you have, your only freedom, the choice that controls all the choices you make and determines your life and your character.

• Individual rights are not subject to a public vote; a majority has no right to vote away the rights of a minority; the political function of rights is precisely to protect minorities from oppression by majorities (and the smallest minority on earth is the individual).

• If devotion to truth is the hallmark of morality, then there is no greater, nobler, more heroic form of devotion than the act of a man who assumes the responsibility of thinking...the alleged short-cut to knowledge, which is faith, is only a short-circuit destroying the mind.

• The ladder of success is best climbed by stepping on the rungs of opportunity.

• The most depraved type of being is that without purpose.

• What do you know and how do you know it?

• So you think that money is the root of all evil. Have you ever asked what is the root of all money?

• The question isn't who is going to let me; it's who is going to stop me.